Mr. Trololo: Gone But NEVER To Be Forgotten

                                 Mr. Trololo: Gone But NEVER To Be Forgotten


      I got "turned on" to this meme only a few short months ago while watching The Freakingness of Haruhi Suzumiya anime parody videos (Part 1, Part 2) on You Tube. For those of you who bother (Or are bothered.) to read this blog, you know I'm something of an anime fan. One blurb in the second part (About 11 minutes of the way in.) used a part of the "Trololo" song. Curious, I sat through the credits & entered "trololo" in the You Tube search field & came up with this.

      Needless to say, I was intrigued. How something so "awful" could be so popular ... I mean this was an awesome weapon of the Cold War & could have spelled the end of the free world. For some strange reason (Divine intervention?), the Soviets decided to turn it on themselves & rely on Jimmy Carter to give the store away to them. Bad move (For them.). Thank GOD for Ronald Reagan!

      Kidding aside, this is an excellent example of one being behind & ahead of his time. Mr. "Trololo" Khil will be missed, but he has achieved an immortality of sorts. The world isn't going to forget him for quite a loooong while.

The "I Am Very Glad Because I'm Finally Back Home" album cover.

Trololo original here.

Long thread on the Classic Horror Film Board here. Lotsa links n' videos.

Ria Novosti obit article here.

Mr. Trololo on Family Guy here.

Hitler Calls the Trololo Guy here.

The Freakingness of Haruhi Suzumiya Part 1, Part 2.

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Invasion U.S.A.: Darn Commies!

Lobby card for Invasion U.S.A.

                                                         Invasion U.S.A.: Darn Commies!

                                                                               by

                                                                                   Jay Agan

      This film is considered by many to be a crappy little movie. Well I happen to like crappy little movies &, as it turns out, for some of the same reasons people of a certain political "bent" turn their noses up at this one.

      They'll go into its' being low budget. OK. They'll talk about its' overuse of stock footage. Again OK. They wax loud & long about the crummy acting. Still ..... OK. Then they get to the real reasons for their dislike of this flick. They're a buncha' leftos.

      Now I've always been fascinated about grade z budgeters with their rotten acting & the use of stock footage broadening their limited scope. Stuff like that makes these little movies so much fun to watch & Invasion U.S.A. has these in spades.

      It's the "comrades" use of the above as a lead-in for their political smarminess that gets my boxers in a bunch.

      Such folks come in two types: Those too young to remember the "cold war" taught by "freeze dried hippies" about the evils of the United States, & the aforesaid "Reagan haters" miffed over how the "cold war" turned out. Screw them. I'm glad there's no Soviet Union to worry about any more & only the "do gooders" (Left AND right!) in our own government to keep an eye on.

I take "critics" of this film about as seriously as I do these three jerks.

      As for Invasion USA, dang it's an interesting little flick. Five complacent patrons of a New York bar are hypnotized into an imagined "what if" of the U.S. & Canada under attack by "the enemy". It's no stretch figuring out who. Through a series of "apocalyptic" vignettes, the protagonists, one by one, pay for their apathy & efforts of "too little too late". The film ends with their snapping out of their trance & resolving to "do something" now instead of later.

Invasion U.S.A.Lobby card of atom bomb attack special effects scene on
New York City.

      With a bigger budget & more than just the seven days of principle filming, this would have made for an excellent picture ...... & even more sneers on the part of the self appointed/morally annointed guardians of our souls. Again ..... screw them anyway.

     As it is, I'd sooner watch Invasion USA (Along with the '85 Chuck Norris version!) or Red Dawn than I would the maudlin garbage of Reds or The Way We Were.

     The Synapse disk of this film contains a listing of the Conelrad 100. A list of "100 of the best "Atomic" films ever made. This is courtesy of conelrad.com, a website specializing in such TV/movie related shows. Warning: It does contain the type of "snarkiness" mentioned earlier in this article.

Article copyright © 1-2-2012 Jay Agan

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Dang! Part 1: Dr. Strangelove



WHAT A WAY TO GO! RIDE 'EM SLIM! RIDE 'EM!
Credit: Hawk Films, Columbia Pictures

                                        
                                         Dang! Part 1: Dr. Strangelove

                                                            by

                                                               Jay Agan

      It's a Friday evening in the late 60s, I get in the celler & flip through our whopping 3 (count em!) channels on our older second set when I stumble on something on ch 10 (WBNS). I see this B52 bomber backed up by somber music winging its way over & through fields of icebergs & stop to watch.

      Seems the bomb bay doors won't swing open & this "cowboy" goes down, sits on the nose of an "A-bomb" & starts fiddling with some faulty, sparking "electronics" in the "ceiling".

      Some tense moments in the cockpit as target is sighted then back to the "cowboy". He must have got the doors working because they swing open & OUT with the bomb he goes. I couldn't believe what I was seeing! He's still straddling the bomb, holding on with one hand, waving his hat with the other & yahooing like he's riding a bucking bronc. ALL THE WAY DOWN! Then Ka-stinking-BOOM! Break to commercial. What the ..... ?



Got this one from Motifake.com. Check em out!


      I go upstairs for something to drink. I must have had this spooked look on my face as Dad asks, "what's wrong?"

      "I just saw a cowboy ride an atom bomb to the ground!"

      "You're watching Dr. Strangelove."

      It was strange all right! I hadn't seen anything that wierd since I'd seen Goldfinger get sucked out of the plane.

      I go back & finish the show in all seriousness (I was too young to appreciate satire.) & sat through the armageddon planning. That surreal ending montage with Vera Lynn & co. singing We'll Meet Again accompanied by mushroom cloud footage spooked me a bit as well.

      Though the "red scare" was long over by then, the "cold war" was in full swing. At that moment, young as I was, I didn't find those scenes at all funny. Years later (Now having the film in my collection.) I now appreciate the films' wit & humor. But then .....

      Those scenes will always haunt me. At least now, for the laughs.

                                         Article copyright © 4-12-2011 Jay Agan

Major Kong rides the bomb. You Tube link here.

Dr. Strangelove trailer. You Tube link here.

Dr. Strangelove ending scene. You Tube link here.

Previous Strangelove article here.

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DISCLAIMER: All images used on this blog are strictly copyrights of their owners. I do not claim credit/ownership for any images used here in my blog unless stated otherwise. If I have offended anyone by posting any images on my blog, please contact me via email and I will remove specified image(s) ASAP.

This article (only) may be copied in whole or in part. Please cite proper credit & backlink.

I Know It's You Diana

                                                   I Know It's You Diana

                                                                   by

                                                                      Jay Agan

      Back in my shortwave listening heyday in the 70s, I'd often tune in to several commie stations (No, I'm not referring to NPR.) for my "nightly hate". Cold war radio at its finest. Radio Moscow, R. Berlin Int., R. Peking, etc. Broadcasters from Commieland, enlightening us as to the "truth" about what was wrong/right in the world & how everything could be made oh so hunky dory. If only we in the decadent west would just put everything into their hot little hands all would be well. Maybe I am writing about NPR.

      One of my "favorite" stations was Radio Havana Cuba.Transmitting from the island of Castrovania, 90 miles off Florida!

      It was from the "Land of Darkness" I would listen to Diana Strong, Arnie Coro, & others regale the world with programs such as "Viet Nam Fights Back", etc. A broadcaster I dearly loved to hate back then.

      Diana Strong, especially. Maybe it was that tone of voice or the manner in which she spoke. Whatever it was, I did NOT like her. As irritating as she was, I also found her compelling. Wierd. (Sorry Arnie, you don't do a thing for me.)

      Another facet of my radio hobby was "numbers stations". "Mysterious" transmissions on odd "off band" frequencies, straight AM, in the clear, consisting of male or female voices reading off 4 or 5 digit strings of numbers. I've heard them in English, Spanish, & German.

      There's been much speculation as to what these stations/transmissions were about. Some have thought them to be messages for covert operatives using code good only for their particular respective broadcasts. My guess is they're nothing more than transmitter/reception tests. Other speculation was as to where these signals were coming from. No doubt in my mind though. Mordor of course! That or NPR.

      One late night/early morning, I did know for certain where one transmission was coming from. I was stooging around between 9 & 10 Mhz when I heard the familiar "cadence" of a numbers station. Seemingly random number strings of 5 digits each in Spanish. A womans' voice. Not just any womans voice. It was the dulcet tones of Diana Strong!

      Was their "numbers lady" off for the night & Diana filling in? Who knows? In my years in the shortwave listening hobby, I hadn't heard her do that before or scince.

      But that night, I knew where & who it was coming from. It was you, Diana.

                                       Article copyright © 1-30-2011 Jay Agan

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DISCLAIMER: All images used on this blog are strictly copyrights of their owners. I do not claim credit/ownership for any images used here in my blog unless stated otherwise. If I have offended anyone by posting any images on my blog, please contact me via email and I will remove specified image(s) ASAP.

This article (only) can be copied in whole or in part with permission. Please include reference/credit and backlink to this page.

Dr. Strangelove: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Annihilation

   

              Dr. Strangelove: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Annihilation

                                                                 by

                                                                    Jay Agan

       Somewhere in the 90s.

      The Ohio Theatre was going to have a showing of  Stanley Kubricks', Dr. Strangelove that Sunday night. Alright! DS on the big screen. Had to see it. So I get off work, grab a parking space under the Statehouse & go in. Waiting for the flick to start, I look around & notice something familiar about the other patrons.

      This takes a little telling. I had seen Strangelove back in '88 at the Columbus Museum of  "Art" on a much smaller screen. The other attendees were of the "smart" set. You know. "Hipsters", parlor pinks, cocktail commies, etc. Needless to say, I was laughing along with them though for different reasons.

      It was pretty much the same at the Ohio Theater except for one notable exception. Col. Jack D. Rippers' (Sterling Hayden) rant at Capt. Mandrake (Peter Sellers) about flouridation. I remember the '88 audience getting quite a giggle over that one. The threat of flouridation was stock in trade of the whacky right wing back then. So I was pretty much prepared for the "morally annointed" to break up  over it this time around.

      "Great. Here it comes," I thought.

      Weird. Only a muted chuckle here & there, more of a reflex action being suppressed. The vast majority of the attendees were quiet. Even attentive. What the......?

       It was the only "bad" part of an enjoyable viewing experience. I pondered it for days.

      A couple regular customers at work clued me in after telling them about it: Between then & "now", government health studies found flouride to be a carcinogen. Guess Col. Ripper wasn't as much a whack job as originally thought. From commie plot to health hazzard. Who'd a thunk it?

                                                   Article copyright © Jay Agan

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